Behave Yourself! Being a Pig Is Nice: A Child's Eye View of Manners by Sally Lloyd-Jones

When you are a PIG, it's not polite to be clean. It's very rude.

You have to get muddy or you get in trouble.

And when you're filthy and yucky enough, your daddy will say, "Good job, my little piggy, all nice and muddy and ready for bed.

BUT, when you ARE a PIG, you smell...and that's not nice!"

There are plenty of laughs at the crucial differences between appropriate human and animal behaviors in Sally Lloyd-Jones' Being a Pig Is Nice: A Child's-Eye View of Manners, (Schwartz & Wade, 2009) but if you look just a bit beneath the surface, there's also some subtle teachings on the reasons for human manners. Skipping the nightly bath and going to bed filthy may seem a treat, but smelling like a PIG--not so much!

Lloyd-Jones points up the other side of being an owl and making noise all night. ("Stop that naughty sleeping right now! Don't make me fly over there or you'll be sorry!") and being a monkey ("You know the drill, young lady! Mouth open wide and show me your food! Now burp like a good little monkey!") Elephants get to splash everyone whether they like it or not, and snails get to dawdle even when they're impatient. And monsters? Your mom is always saying, "Are you going to be good? I HOPE NOT!"

But owls have to eat mice for breakfast, and snails have to be slimy, and monkeys have to eat grubs out of everyone's ears, and even monsters can't ever be good, even if they're in a mellow mood, so maybe it's not so bad just to be a polite child sometimes!

In Being a Pig Is Nice: A Child's-Eye View of Manners, Sally Lloyd-Jones and cartoonist/artist Don Krall enjoy a humorous look at human etiquette, poking gentle fun at moms and their warnings, but all in all making it seem generally preferable to stick to our tried and true human ways.

Under the Christmas Tree: I'll be Home for Christmas (Toot & Puddle) by Holly Hobbie

"My dear Toot," said the ancient aunt, "This is for you. It is my lucky nut."

And with that fortuitous gift the globe-trotting Toot is off for another adventure in far places. His autumn travels take him finally to Edinburgh, where, just as his plans turn toward Christmas back in Woodcock Pocket, Massachusetts, Mother Nature intervenes in his travel plans:

TO: Puddle
SUBJECT: Christmas

Puds!

Edinburgh is having an ice storm. All flights delayed. But don't decorate the tree without me. I'm on my way home...somehow.

Your pal,
Toot

P.S.: I'm full of Christmas spirit!

So while Puddles and Tulip are bringing home the tree and baking Toot's favorite fruitcake, Toot begins to make his way home. The first leg of the trip, via WorldWide Airways, finally takes off and, flying over a snowy Atlantic Ocean, lands at last in Boston, where everything is shut down because of the storm--trains, buses, and taxis. Resolutely, Toot trudges past Beacon Hill and across the Common, heading on through the night into the wooded countryside.

At home Puddles peers out the snowy window and worries how Toot can get possibly through the storm. Meanwhile Toot slogs on through the deep drifts until he cannot take another step and stops beneath a snowy tree. "I promised Puddles I would be home tonight," he frets.

Then hugging himself to keep warm, Puddles discovers his Aunt Peg's talisman in his pocket, and, clutching the lucky nut, whispers, "It's Christmas Eve. I wish I was home in Woodcock Pocket!"


And soon he is, as a passenger in an ornate passing sleigh driven by a jolly fur-clad driver. At the door of their cottage Puddles greets the weary traveler warmly, as always, and soon, dressed in their red flannel long johns, Toot at last joins Puddles in decorating the tree and sharing a late snack of homemade fruitcake before they turn in--to wait until morning for Santa's official visit.

Holly Hobbie's Toot & Puddle: I'll Be Home for Christmas Gift Set (Toot & Puddle (Mini)), featuring the now-famous NOGGIN television stars, one a adventurous traveler, the other a content stay-at-home, reunited for Christmas Eve, makes a great gift, especially in this special edition which includes two mini-plush figures of the porkers dressed in their monogrammed red longjohns with real drop-seat flaps.


And then there's also the brand-new tenth-anniversary edition of the pair's first episode, Toot & Puddle, and the wintry tale Toot & Puddle: Let It Snow (Toot and Puddle). Hobbie's seasonal treat is also available in its DVD version, as Toot & Puddle: I'll Be Home for Christmas.

Diva Double: Ginger and Petunia by Patricia Polacco

Move over, Mercy Watson, and make room for another portly personality. Petunia, the pampered porcine star of Patricia Polacco's Ginger and Petunia, is a personable pig who is forced to become an impromptu impersonator for her glamorous owner.

Virginia Vincent Folsum is a fulsomely elegant pianist and a notably classy dresser. She lives with her overindulged pet pig Petunia in a posh apartment, where, stunningly turned out, she daily teaches her highly talented students. In her leisure she cooks and sews for Petunia and tootles around town in her smart little red roadster. For her part, Petunia lives in ample quarters under the grand staircase, enjoys her special mud spa, and listens to grand opera nightly with her mistress Ginger.

It's a perfect life for the pair until Ginger gets a sudden invitation to perform at an international piano congress in London and hurriedly heads for the airport, arranging for an expensive house sitter to care for Peturnia. To Petunia's perturbation, the sitter bails out soon after Ginger takes off, and the coddled pig is forced to carry on for her missing mistress.

And carry on she does! After all the time spent with Ginger, Petunia has no issue with impersonating the great diva. With Ginger's cosmetics and couture and cuisine all too familiar to the observant pig, it's no problem for her to, shall we say, put up a good front (and rear). With plenty of pancake and perfume, corsetry and mascara, wigs and depilatories, and, of course, the perfect accessories, on the first day Petunia improvises her way through piano lessons and an art museum gala, where she accidentally overturns a famous Roman statue, whose crashing tumble reveals it to be a plaster fake. As Ginger, Petunia becomes an instant media darling, invited to make an appearance the next night at the mayor's festive dinner party. Her notoriety snowballs, and she soon finds herself dancing a tempestuous tango with the governor at his annual ball.

But it's all almost too much for the imposter pig. It's been days since she's enjoyed her deluxe mud spa, and as the governor's limo deposits her at home, Petunia is delighted to see that the REAL Ginger Folsum is back and in charge of her own affairs at last.

"And to think that no one noticed that YOU weren't ME!" says Ginger.

"Well, I always say you are what you wear. And, Petunia...from what I gather...you were a great ME!"

It's an outrageously exaggerated tale, and Patricia Polacco's over-the-top illustrations are, as always, eye-catching eye candy. The artist really lets herself go with this one, swirling her deliciously costumed pianist and pig with abandon across the pages. No one uses color and white space like Polacco, and this book is as eye-popping as its two protagonists.